1802.
October.
Friday 22.
west of the first reefs, but its existence is very doubtful; for all that M. de Bougainville says of it (II, 163) is, that "some even thought they saw low land to the south-west of the breakers."
Saturday 23.Next day at noon, we were in 15° 12′ south, and 149° 2′ east; the current had set half a knot to the N.N.W., and many of the former kinds of birds, as also boobies and petrels, were seen. Hitherto we had kept up nearly to the wind, in order to gain an offing from the coast and Barrier Reefs; but next morningSunday 24. the course was directed N.W. At noon, latitude 13° 47′, longitude 148° 39′: many boobies seen, and some petrels and tropic birds. On the 25th,Monday 25. a shag flew round the ship, and a large flock of petrels was seen: latitude at noon, 12° 55′, longitude 147° 23′,(Atlas,
Pl. XIII.) and the current setting more than a mile an hour to the west. At eight in the evening, when we hauled to the wind, there was no bottom at 130 fathoms.
Wednes. 27. In the morning of the 27th, a small land bird, resembling a linnet, was seen; at noon we were in 10° 28′ south and 146° 7′ east, and the current had set W.N.W., three quarters of a mile an hour, since the 25th. The wind, which had been at south-east, then shifted suddenly to north, and blew fresh with squally weather; but at midnight it veered to south-east again. These changes were accompanied with thunder, lightning and rain; indications, as I feared, of the approaching north-west monsoon. We lay to, during a part of the night; and at day-breakThurs. 28. bore away again upon our north-western course. At eight o'clock, breakers were seen extending from S.W. by W. to N. by. E., distant from two to six miles; there was a small gap in them, bearing N. by W. ½ W., but we hauled up north-east, to windward of the whole, and made more sail. I ventured to bear away at ten; and at noon our latitude was 9° 51′ 36″, and longitude 145° 45½′ by time keeper. No reefs were then in sight; but in steering west, we passed through a rippling of tide or current, and a single breaker was seen from the mast head, at three o'clock, bearing S.W. four or five miles.
These reefs lie nearly a degree to the eastward of those first